


Heartbreak Situation

by Chocolate_Banana_Smoothies



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/F, F/M, Hunay, Laith, Lance Keith Pidge and Hunk are in High School, Lotor is Rich AF, Lotura - Freeform, M/M, Matt is Love with Shiro, Pomelle, Romelle Works in a Flower Shop/Cafe, Shadam, Shiro and Adam are Engaged and Planning their Wedding, Slowburn Klance, adashi, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-14 17:27:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16497002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocolate_Banana_Smoothies/pseuds/Chocolate_Banana_Smoothies
Summary: Relationships are the best and worst thing that can happen to someone. Crushes, dating, finding love, it can all be absolute bliss. But the fighting, cheating, and fading feelings can be the the worst thing imaginable.But it's different for everyone.Lance and Keith have to break through this wall of hate to even have a tolerance for one another. Shiro is torn between his fiance and his best friend. Pidge is dealing with having a crush on a girl who might just be straight. Allura doesn't know what to do when a handsome business man asks her on a date.Apparently, Hunk's the only one who knows what a healthy love life is like.





	Heartbreak Situation

**Author's Note:**

> This is an edited re-upload of a story I was working on a long time ago. It’s been a few seasons since I even opened this story up. I took the liberty of changing like 25% of it altogether. This was originally going to be very centralized on Lance and Keith. Now every chapter, I’ll be transitioning between different characters. This is going to be the story about a lot of the main characters.
> 
> Mostly about their confusing and frustrating love lives.

Keith had always found art to be a calming outlet. He had a steady hand, so drawing and painting was just a natural talent of his, and he was proud to have it. Normally, plotting out the details of his next masterpiece would be soothing after a rough day of school, but right now, he was just aggravated. Because of this, he couldn't exactly focus on art.  
  
Or... anything, really.  
  
Keith stared at the blank canvas that sat in front of him with a distraught expression on his face. As hard as he tried, he couldn't stop thinking about today's encounter with a certain sorry excuse for a human being. If he had to choose one person who was the most irritating, arrogant, egotistical, and idiotic teenage boy to walk the Earth, it would be Lance, his extremely vexing chemistry partner.  
  
Keith always found himself wondering how every time he talked to that thick-headed jerk, he always felt like he was having a migraine afterwards, which amazes him, since he usually never gave a second thought to the people he didn’t exactly care for. And Lance was definitely one of those people.  
  
Keith often found himself wondering how things would be different if he hadn't been late to his chemistry class on the first day of school. It was all because Keith couldn't find his class that he'd gotten there late, and had to take the only open seat left.  
  
Which, unfortunately, was by him.  
  
He hated how Lance always had this trademark shit-eating grin constantly stretched across his lips, and how he was always quick to overestimate himself. Not to mention he was never with the same girl for more than a couple weeks. He was known for being the soccer team captain, and being the apex of the school's food chain. Every girl thought he was a dream boat when it came to looks, even a couple guys here and there were somewhat into him in some way or another.  
  
Not that Keith cared about any of those things. He just hated the way Lance talked to him, and how he acted like a prick towards him every chance he got. How he always acted like such a mister hotshot.  
  
Like today, for example.  
  
The way Lance had openly taunted him with his crappy friends had been especially irking today for some reason, like Keith was at his limit. He just lost it and whipped around, kicked Lance in the shin, and then punched him dead in the face. It didn't even take a few seconds for Lance to get back up and grab Keith by the hair, and slam him face against the closest locker.  
  
Not long after that, a pretty decent crowd had gathered and the two of them were in a full on brawl, which led to Keith having a bloody nose and swelling black eye. Lance ended up with a busted up lip and a deep, brutal bite mark on his arm that Keith made after Lance tried to grab him in a choke hold.  
  
In the end, they were sent to the Principal Alfor's office, then they got Saturday schools for the next two months. They were both told that they were lucky they weren't suspended. Keith didn't really care. It wasn't exactly his first time getting in trouble on school grounds before. Though, Shiro was going to nag him for having that land on her permanent record.  
  
What Keith couldn't shake off though, was that after he'd bitten Lance, he could taste blood. Lots of it.  
  
By the time both he and Lance had been sent to the principal's office, his saliva had washed away the blood from his teeth, but he'd looked over at Lance's arm where he had attacked him. Keith noticed that Lance had rolled down his sweatshirt sleeve to cover the wound, and that the sleeve eventually became soaked with a dark color, and he was desperately trying to hide it.  
  
After thinking about it for a while, Keith had convinced himself that he didn't feel bad about anything, and that Lance obviously deserved it since he'd intentionally riled him up.  
  
Keith heard a 'snap', and looked down to find that he broke the paintbrush he held in his hand, causing him to curse under his breath. Just thinking about today had put him in such a pissy mood. It was worse than the time he found out that Shiro had gotten a boyfriend, and waited until three months into their relationship to tell him.  
  
As Keith tossed his broken brush pieces aside, he heard a knock on his door, drawing his attention to Shiro, who was standing in his doorway with a small smile playing on his features.  
  
"Ready to go?" he asked.  
  
Keith gave him a puzzled look before coming to the realization. "Oh. I forgot we were all going out tonight."  
  
Gliding to his closet, Keith flung the door open and immediately started looking for his red hoodie and any other decent clothes to throw together, considering that red flannel pajama pants and plain white t-shirts weren't exactly what one would wear to a Buffalo Wild Wings unless they didn't give a shit. And usually, Keith didn't care, but he knew that if he tried to leave the house in pajamas, Shiro would yank him back inside and tell him to change into "actual clothes".  
  
Shiro watched as Keith frantically searched for something acceptable to wear in a frenzied manner. Finally, he decided to look around as his brother changed, finding the blank canvas that sat at the corner of the room.  
  
"Were you working on something before I walked in?"  
  
Keith looked back at Shiro after stripping off his pants, noticing him observe the untouched canvas. "Nah. My mind was having a creativity block."  
  
"Huh," Shiro quirked an eyebrow. "that doesn't normally happen to you. Something wrong? Wait, did they cancel The Walking Dead?"  
  
"Oh, my god Shiro, no, they wouldn't cancel a show that good, okay?" Keith said bluntly, slipping into a pair of black skinny jeans. "Anyway, this isn't about TV shows or any of that crap. It's more personal."  
  
Shiro didn't take long to figure it out. "Lance is plaguing your mind again?"  
  
"Ugh," Keith scoffed, tossing his shirt at him after taking it off. "Don't say it like that. It makes me sound like I'm obsessed with him or something... Anyway, yeah, he's been bothering me for a while now. You know that." Keith pointed to his face and added, "Plus, he gave me something to remember him by. Every time my nose aches, I think of him. And he gave me a black eye for god sakes! He makes me want to scoop his eyes out with a melon baller and feed them to Rover!"  
  
Shiro cringed, "Okay, first of all, Pidge wouldn't let her dog eat any human eyes, I think. Secondly, knowing you, Keith, I'm sure you gave him something to remember you by too."  
  
"Hell yeah I did," Keith spat, remembering the way his cheeks tingled at the taste of Lance's blood. Thinking about it now, he guessed that Lance was going to need to get stitches for the bite.  
  
After a moment, Shiro asked, "You wanna know something?"  
  
Keith rolled his eyes and said, "Not really." He already knew where Shiro was going with this.  
  
"Well I'm gonna tell you anyway," Shiro said, "I know that Lance is an extremely good person, despite what you think of him. He's not just about having horrible jokes, a big ego, and fooling around. Maybe if you tried to get to know him, you'd see that. Lance is a good person who's just friends with some not so good people."  
  
"Easy for you to say," Keith mumbled, pulling on a tight black shirt before shrugging on his hoodie. "You see him practically everyday at work at the Auto Shop, so of course you've learned to tolerate him."  
  
"Yeah, but I'm not going to tolerate this," Shiro said, gesturing to the injuries on Keith's face. "This isn't okay, Keith."  
  
"So talk to him-"  
  
"Ah!" Shiro put his hand up, cutting him off. "Keith, you're the one who started the fight today. And you just threatened to gouge out his eyes with a melon baller less than a minute ago." Shiro paused with an uneasy look on his face, "It's kind of a terrifying image to be honest."  
  
Keith raised a brow.  
  
"And I was in the Army. I've seen messed up things," Shiro finally added.  
  
Keith let out a grunt and said, "He provoked me! He was mouthing off about me to his dumb friends."  
  
Shiro checked the clock on Keith's wall. "Okay, Lance aside, we'll talk about this later. For now, let's just go and have a good time. It's almost seven, and Matt and Pidge are already in the car. And if I know them well enough, they'll try to drive off without us if they have to wait for much longer. Nothing gets between those two and food when they're hungry."  
  
Keith knew he couldn't say anything else, because Shiro would just stop him mid-sentence. "Fine."  
  
.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-.  
  
"I can't believe he actually bit you. It looks like a beast just freaking thrashed itself on your arm." James laughed, wrapping bandages around Lance's stitched forearm.  
  
"Shut up." Lance said, brushing his words off. "I should've seen it coming. I remember biting people who've held me in a choke hold before."  
  
James suppressed chuckles as he continued wrapping up Lance's arm. "¿Estás bien?"  
  
"Estoy bien," Lance lazily replied. He tried to kill the butterflies in his stomach with his mind. He always became weak when James started talking to him in Spanish. It was his achilles heel.  
  
"Anyway, why didn't you get sent to the hospital? This looks really bad."  
  
Lance hesitated before saying, "You know, some things are better left alone. If I got sent to a hospital to get my arm professionally stitched, the doctors would've gotten ahold of mi'amá and told her about the situation, and she'd freak, and dad wouldn't know what to think. I hid the bite under my hoodie, but now it's gotta huge blood stain on it now, so I don't know how I'm gonna get around that."  
  
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Though, your parents aren't near as strict as mine," James said, taking off his own jacket before tossing it to Lance. "You can borrow this to cover the bandages with."  
  
Lance tugged on the leather jacket, hissing in pain when he moved his bitten forearm the wrong way. "Thanks. Anyway, you egged Shiro on too much, so he told my parents every bad detail about you. They think you're a bad influence on me."  
  
James shrugged. "Whatever. I think your parents just hated that we dated. Back then you were like a wild child who couldn't be caged. They didn't like that I tried keeping you that way. You seemed to be your most authentic self when we were out chasing dumb thrills every night with our friends."  
  
Lance combed his hair back with his fingers and huffed. "Yeah, I was pretty crazy back then."  
  
"You still are, dumbass. Just look at what you did to that Kegan guy’s face," James smirked, trying to hold back a laugh.  
  
"Keith. His name is Keith," Lance deadpanned.  
  
"Still."  
  
They held each other's gaze for a moment before James reached out to gently stroked Lance's busted lip with his thumb. "I miss this. I miss it when you got in fights every other day, and you came to me to patch you up because there was no one else you could trust."  
  
Lance let out a nervous chuckle, turning his head away to free himself from his hand. "I don't..."  
  
Lance tried his hardest to stop himself from blushing. He hated to admit it, but he sometimes missed being with James. Lance missed combing his fingers through his long, soft brown hair and kissing his smooth lips. He remembered running his fingers across James’ warm, tanned skin as they had random, silly conversations, and how Lance would stare into his bright eyes for hours as they fell asleep.  
  
And then Lance would remember the fights they had, how James would always bring up recurring threats that involved sleeping with other people, and how they would sometimes get into physical fights with each other because Lance would always feel vulnerable and throw the first punch before James did. In the end, their fights would either ended up with them in bed, or in a hospital.  
  
Shiro always warned Lance to be wary of James, but he never listened. Eventually, Lance wised up, but by then it was a too late. James had eventually dumped him, claiming that he'd gotten bored with their relationship. He almost immediately started seeking out Kinkade, Lance's friend in Agriculture class.  
  
Lance had never felt so useless and alone, and above all, undesirable.  
  
So unworthy.  
  
Lance felt somewhat embarrassed when he remembered when he went to work at the Black Lion Auto Shop and just randomly broke down in the middle of the day and was kind of forced to tell Shiro what happened with James. They just closed up shop early and just talked about it for hours. It was pretty amazing how much respect Lance had developed for Shiro after that. Lance admired Shiro, and saw him as someone he could trust and confide in. He honestly didn’t have a lot of people like that in his life.  
  
Shiro cared. Lance knew that. That’s why he kept warning him about James. He then realized that Shiro wasn’t being a hardass. He was just looking out for him.  
  
"We were bad for each other," Lance said, mostly to himself. "I liked being with you at first, but we always ended up falling apart. You always made me feel like crap."  
  
James’ gaze trailed to the floor as he nodded in agreement. "We were quite hot and cold towards each other, weren't we?"  
  
"That's a bit of an understatement, but yeah. Besides, you have a girlfriend now, don't you? So stop saying you miss me. I bet she'd kill you if she found out you still linger after me now and then."  
  
James shrugged. "I think she knows I'm not serious about her."  
  
"Gee, you sure know how to treat a person." Sarcasm dripped from Lance's tone.  
  
Ignoring Lance's comment, James examined the freshly wrapped wound on his ex's arm. "Give it a couple days. I'll change your bandages so that the bite doesn't get infected. Also, I'll cut your stitches in a few weeks if your arm is ready."  
  
Lance rose from James’ bed. The bed that Lance had slept on too many times. "Jeez, it's not like Keith has rabies. Or, maybe he does," Lance laughed. "That would explain a lot." Lance grabbed his backpack by the door before looking over at James. "Anyway, thanks. I'll see you around."  
  
"Looking forward to it," James sighed as he watched Lance walk out the room.  
  
.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-.  
  
Walking home wasn't terrible for him, even though it was dark out. Lance wasn't really ever a huge fan of the dark. It didn't make him feel any safer with the occasional street light lighting up a small portion of the street. It was always creepy for him having to walk home at night. This was a city after all, it's always dangerous being outside past nine. He missed living in the country with his family like they did when he was little.  
  
Hoo boy, how things were so simple as a kid living in a small town. Now his life was outta whack.  
  
Once he reached his house after walking down a few streets, Lance caressed the wound on his arm with his fingers before opening the front door. He was thankful that he was borrowing James’ jacket to cover up his bandages instead of wearing his blood soaked one. Wearing that inside the house and being caught would only end up in his mother totally freaking out on him.  
  
Lance knew his mom would fight the world to keep him safe and happy, and he could never be grateful enough to have such a loving parent, but he didn't want to bother her with his school drama.  
  
Lance silently prayed that he could just sneak up the stairs and call it a night, but of course, the first thing he heard after carefully opening the door was his brother, Marco, screaming at the top of his lungs.  
  
"¡Papá! Lance is home!"  
  
"Mierda," Lance whispered under his breath.  
  
Next thing he knew, his father's footsteps boomed throughout the house. Marco quietly followed. Lance watched as they stood in front of his stand, blocking him from scrambling to his escape upstairs. He was considering turning around and running out the front door.  
  
"Lance Álvaro McClain!"  
  
Lance was already kicking himself for using the front door to begin with. "Hey papá," Lance said innocently, "Lo siento, I lost track of time. Sidewalk traffic is just crazy."  
  
"Ha! ‘Lo siento’ my boot! Do you have any idea what time it is?" His voice was deep and commanding.  
  
Lance turned to look out of their screen door. "Night time?"  
  
"It's one in the morning!" His father’s face was dusting over with a light shade of red. He wasn’t having any of it tonight.  
  
"I'm sorry, okay? I, uh, went to James’ place for a while. He's a very smart guy, after all. He was helping me study for my algebra test next week," Lance said. "I didn't mean to make you worry."  
  
The very mention of James made his brother huff with frustration. "Lance, all you two studied together was human anatomy. And I'm not talking about the class."  
  
"That's a bit..." Lance trailed, rubbing his arm nervously. He shot his brother a sharp look while his face became flushed with shame.  
  
His father shook his head. "Your mother was worried when we got a call from your principal today. He told us that you got involved in fight. A physical fight. Is that true?"  
  
Lance could make up hundreds of excuses, but he couldn't think of a believable one. That, and he didn't see any reason to lie about it. "Yeah, I did."  
  
"Right... Then you didn't come home from school. She called your brother, panicking about you. He drove all the way here to help me calm your mother down. He's been here for hours."  
  
Lance rolled his eyes when he saw his father cross his arms and looked down to the ground, an unreadable expression on his face. Marco’s eyes flitted back and forth between his little brother and his father. He was silently praying that Lance would get off easy. Marco knew their father’s wrath all too well.  
  
"You've been slipping lately. Don't think your mother and I haven't noticed. We've gotten calls from your school about minor things, but they've been getting more frequent. And now you've started fighting again."  
  
"Papá, it was just a little fight."  
  
Marco winced. “Not the right thing to say, bud.”  
  
"Little?” Their father crossed his arms. His face showed how exasperated he was feeling. “Lance, you're a junior in high school, you're so close to being done. College will come sooner than you think, and I don't want you screwing yourself over. I don't know what to do anymore."  
  
Lance sighed and said, "That makes two of us."  
  
Silence. Neither of them dare say a word, because they both knew that this could end up with them screaming at each other like many of their fights have done.  
  
Finally, his father gave up and said, "If you can't learn anything here, then maybe you should stay with someone who can get through to you."  
  
Lance quirked an eyebrow and asked, "What do you mean by that?"  
  
“Papá, don’t…” Marco pleaded.  
  
The older man looked his youngest son with a drained look on his face. "It means what it means."  
  
Lance nervously laughed as he asked, "You're, like, not suggesting sending me to a boot camp, right?" His eyes darted to his older brother. “Right? Back me up here.”  
  
"No, Lance," his father mumbled, walking to the home phone. "You're boss and I have been talking a bit. He's worried about you too, and he said he's willing to help you out."  
  
"As in..?"  
  
"As in, you're going to live with Shiro until you graduate. I'm calling him right now to take him up on his offer."  
  
.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-.  
  
The next day started off smoothly for Keith. His first few classes blew by fairly quick, since he pretty much already knew everything he was learning like the back of his hand. He was gifted with being naturally studious. However, his fourth hour class was gym, which was a class he had with Lance. And for Keith, it dragged on for what seemed like forever, like it always did.  
  
Of course, the fact that his mom was the gym teacher didn’t help in the slightest.  
  
Finally, after warm-ups, Coach Krolia blew her whistle and told everyone to huddle up.  
  
"We'll be playing soccer again today," she started, gaining a few cheers from Lance and the other few soccer players in the class. "Like usual, I'll be picking your teams."  
  
Then some groans that sounded from students who were eager to play on the same team as their friends, but Keith didn't particularly mind too much, considering that his only friend in this class was Pidge. There's always a 50/50 chance of them ending up on the same team.  
  
The plus of having his mom as the teacher was that she usually had them on a team with one another. She was cool like that.  
  
Keith's eyes wandered around until they finally landed on Lance, and some girl with long blue twintails draping herself all over him. Keith recognized her to be a classmate of his in art. Her name was Pamela, but her friends had jokingly nicknamed her Plaxum because she had like a dozen bottles of "Titanium-Strong" mouthwash called Plaxum in her bathroom that kept her teeth nice and pearly white.  
  
Behind Lance, Plaxum had her arms wrapped around his waist and her chin resting on his shoulder. Keith noticed that Lance kept uncomfortably smiling at things she'd whisper into his ear.  
  
Keith couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes before he turned his attention to Pidge, who was currently tugging at her shirt out of boredom. When Krolia started appointing team captains, she pulled her hair back into a little ponytail.  
  
"I hate this class," she grumbled.  
  
Keith gave her a couple pats on the shoulder to show his empathy. Pidge slumped against him, using his body as support, and sighed.  
  
"I wish Shiro and Matt had just called us in, even though we're not sick. I hate Tuesdays. Like, seriously, we could be watching The Walking Dead right now."  
  
"I know," Keith said absentmindedly. Keith thought that sitting at home doing nothing with Pidge sounded freaking splendid. Keith didn't give a single chiz about school at the moment. He was in a bitter mood, and had no clue why.  
  
Maybe Pidge was right. Maybe it was because it was a Tuesday.  
  
"It's the day after the dreaded Monday," Pidge continued. "but it's before the middle of the week, Wednesday. Tuesday is such a tease day. It shouldn't exist."  
  
"Uh-huh."  
  
Pidge looked at her Keith, realizing that he was tuning her out, so she just groaned and let her mind wander.  
  
Pidge's thoughts started to turn towards Shiro. She'd gotten the oh-so-wonderful news about Lance moving in with them this morning, which seemed pretty strange, but she didn't particularly care. She knew that Lance and Hunk were really good friends, so Lance was fine with her too. At least, somewhat. Pidge was still kind of ticked off about the whole thing between him and Keith, but Pidge liked Hunk. Any friend of Hunk's, was a-okay with her.  
  
Lance was supposed to move in sometime this week, which meant that he could come anytime. Pidge tried to think about what it would be like to live with Lance. The idea seemed odd to her. Pidge had lived with her brother, Shiro, and Keith for years, so she was just used to them. But Lance? She had no clue how he was as a roommate.  
  
"Hey, Shiro told me that Lance is moving in with us until he graduates. How do you think that'll go down?" She went on.  
  
"Sure Pidge, whatever you say..." Keith drawled.  
  
Pidge shot him a perplexed look. "Um, Keith, did you hear me at all?"  
  
Keith turned his head to look at her. "Hm?"  
  
"I asked you about what you think about Lance moving in with us."  
  
Pidge could just feel the gears in Keith's mind begin to turn. She knew he was trying to process what she'd just said.  
  
"Wait, what?" Keith hissed.  
  
"What?" Pidge asked. Finally, a light bulb went off in her brain. "Oh, you didn't know?"  
  
"Uh, no, I didn't!" Keith looked back at Lance, who was currently chatting away with a few of his friends from across the gym as if he didn't have a care in the world.  
  
"Yeah, his dad had been dealing with a little too much of Lance and his 'disciplinary issues' lately. Shiro was more than happy to take Lance off of his hands. Matt's pretty excited about having someone new in the house. It's like he sees Lance as a new pet or something."  
  
"Great," Keith huffed, "So, I'm gonna have to lock myself in my room just to avoid that idiot at home now?"  
  
"Um," Pidge followed Keith gaze, which was on Lance. "Yeah, I'm not sure that'll work."  
  
Keith snapped his attention back to her. "Why not?"  
  
"Uh, maybe 'cause you'll be sharing your room with him?"  
  
Before Keith could completely freak out right there in the middle of the gym, Krolia blew her whistle, assigning each student to a team.  
  
.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-.  
  
Lance was having trouble trying to find the bright side of his current situation. A silver lining, if you will. He was taking his time on the way to class, just so that he wouldn't have to face Keith. God knows that would only make his day worse. It was bad enough his dad was kicking him out and forcing him to live with his boss, now he was going to have forced interactions with the most broody, angry, downright aggressive jerk to ever live.  
  
Wanting to see Keith as little as possible, Lance walked as slow as socially acceptable.  
  
But, unfortunately he was nearing the door to his chemistry class.  
  
He felt something in his gut drop when he entered the room, and the first thing he saw was Keith glaring at him from the back of the room where their table was. He let out a nervous huff and then straightened his back before proceeding to his chair.  
  
“Okay,” Lance whispered nervously. “Let's get weird.”  
  
Lance dropped his backpack next to the table and flopped into his seat, refusing to make eye contact with Keith as they just sat their in their usual tense and awkward silence.  
  
Keith however, was trying to sneakily study Lance's face. His lip was definitely swollen, the cut had started to scab. He wasn't able to notice it in gym class from across the room. And Lance had been wearing a blue hoodie over his gym shirt, so Keith wasn't able to see his arm or anything. Even now, Lance was sporting a blue flannel that covered his skin.  
  
Keith quickly looked away once he saw Lance flicker his eyes in his direction. He felt a twinge of embarrassment for getting caught staring.  
  
"Nice shiner you got there, buddy," Lance joked, mostly to himself.  
  
Lance wasn't looking to start a fight, he just wanted to get rid of the soul-crushing silence. But apparently, he'd just pulled a pin on Keith's "Okay Asshole, Let's Get Snippy" grenade.  
  
Keith scoffed. "Your lip doesn't look much better than my eye, man. Not many girls are gonna want to kiss that mess."  
  
"I'll have you know that-" Before Lance could finish his reply, the bell rang, causing everyone to quiet down and await their teacher's arrival.  
  
Across the room from the two busted up boys, Hunk and Pidge were tinkering away at a little metallic figure that sat on their table.  
  
"Phillips," Pidge grumbled as she studied the pyramid-like robot.  
  
Hunk handed her the screwdriver she requested and watched her work. After trying to force the screw to connect the metal plate to the base for a good four minutes, she sighed.  
  
"It's not working, I think the screw is too big," she finally said.  
  
"So, what now?" Hunk asked.  
  
"What do you think? Get the mini blowtorch from my backpack. I'm gonna make it work."  
  
Hunk sighed, grabbing her bag from the floor before rustling through it.  
  
"I honestly think it's cute that you carry your diary around with you," Hunk gushed.  
  
Pidge just huffed, slightly embarrassed.  
  
Hunk finally found it after a minute and handed it to his chem partner. "I still find it hard to believe that you carry something like this around. I mean, a mini blowtorch. A blowtorch, Pidge!"  
  
Pidge shrugged and grabbed two full-face masks that sat on the side of the table.  
  
"Here," she said, tossing one of them to Hunk, causing him to groan in frustration. Regardless of his doubts, he put it on.  
  
Pidge stood on her chair and turned to her all of her classmates while pulling a pair of heavy gloves onto her hands.  
  
"Attention," she began, her voice being muffled by her mask. "I would like to warn some of you to please take a step back. Sparks are gonna fly, and this is the chemistry room. There are a lot of flammable substances in here! Probably... I dunno, but I wouldn't take my chances as a bystander."  
  
Lance and Keith gave her worried looks, along with the rest of the class.  
  
"I'm just warning you, know where your fire exits are." She sat back down and started up the torch.  
  
"Was that little warning supposed to reassure us?" Lance asked.  
  
Keith shrugged. “I guess?”  
  
Lance was surprised Keith even answered him, but dismissed it. He was most likely just being civil.  
  
Pidge slowly merged the flame with the metal plate, sparks indeed flying around like she'd promised. A few girls behind her shrieked and ran to the back of the room.  
  
Lance peered over the shoulder of a few of his classmates and watched Pidge meld the metal plate to the base of the pathetic excuse for a robot as Hunk ushered a few other students to the back as a safety measure.  
  
"What in blazes is going on here?! I heard screams!"  
  
The entire class looked from Pidge to their teacher who ran through the front door.  
  
"Pidge!" he yelled.  
  
Pidge looked at Coran through her mask and waved, then continued to meld the metal.  
  
"Don't brush me off like that young lady!" Coran yelled. "Take that mask off and work on this contraption on your own time!"  
  
Pidge turned off the torch and lifted her mask. "No can do Mr. Smythe, I gotta get this as done as soon as possible or I won't be able to sleep for the next two days."  
  
"Two days?" Hunk asked.  
  
Pidge sighed. "I estimated that it would take me four days to finish this. I can't sleep until it's done. I've worked too hard, Hunk!"  
  
"Pidge," Coran sighed.  
  
The second Pidge turned to face Coran, a sticky note was smacked to her forehead.  
  
"See me after class for a chat."  
  
Pidge pulled the note off her face and read it.  
  
'Detention'  
  
.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-.  
  
Pidge swung her locker door open, the metal slamming into the locker beside it. "How did he even get that written down so fast? Does he just like have a bunch of sticky notes that say detention on them in his pockets? Good lord!"  
  
Pidge was annoyed, but couldn't be too mad considering that Coran was her favorite teacher. And to be fair, she deliberately said no to him when he'd told her to knock it off, which isn't usually something that teachers here turn the blind eye to.  
  
Pidge stuck the note in the back of her locker and turned to Keith. "On the bright side, this actually gives me a cool idea for a little gadget thing though! A little sticky note gun! I could probably convince Mr. Smythe to give me extra credit for making something like that for him."  
  
"Pidge, you used a blowtorch in class and scared half of our classmates. If you'd just stuck to the screwdriver, he might've let it slide," Keith said irritably.  
  
Pidge noticed his tone. "Jeez, what's wrong with you? Did they cancel The Walking Dead or something?"  
  
"Oh my god," Keith rubbed his forehead and sighed. "No! Why does everyone assume that when I'm upset it's about The Walking Dead or Lance?"  
  
"Hey, hey now," Pidge smirked, her bad mood starting to fade. "I never said anything about Lance."  
  
Keith shoved his hands in his jean pockets and growled under his breath.  
  
"Is that what you're so wazzed off about? Lance moving in with us?"  
  
"No..."  
  
Pidge raised an eyebrow.  
  
Keith gave in. "Okay, yeah, that and I'm annoyed with Shiro for not telling me about this in the first place. How long have you know about this?"  
  
"Since this morning. Lance's dad called Shiro around one in the morning today to settle how this is gonna go down."  
  
Keith gave her a sideways glance. "One in the morning?"  
  
“Yep," Pidge shoved her chem book in her locker and pulled her green hoodie out before shutting the locker. "Lance got home around that time and his dad got ticked off or something. I don't know, Shiro didn't tell me the whole story."  
  
Keith sighed.  
  
"Stop sighing, seriously. That's like the millionth time today. You're gonna fog up my glasses at this rate," Pidge joked.  
  
"Okay, okay. So how long did you say he was gonna live with us? A week? A month?"  
  
Pidge bit her lip. "You seriously weren't listening to me before, huh?"  
  
Keith started to worry.  
  
"I said that Lance is moving in with us until he graduates."  
  
Keith just stood there, motionless for a few moments. Then, Keith turned himself to face the locker he was leaning on, and then started banging his head against it.  
  
"Whoa, Keith!" Pidge put a hand between the locker and his forehead. "It'll be okay! Don't do this to yourself."  
  
Keith groaned, brushing her hand away. He jolted away from the locker and exasperated expression on his face. "Okay, okay yeah! That's-" Keith let out a hollow laugh and threw up his hands. "That's totally fine. It's cool! It's not like I have a problem with that. I mean, clearly Shiro knew that, because he didn't even ask me how I felt about the whole situation!"  
  
Keith stood there in front of a very amused Pidge before he rammed his foot into a locker and growled. He silently cursed his life.  
  
.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-.  
  
The slamming of the front door signaled Shiro that a very ticked off brother of his was home.  
  
"What the hell man?" was the first thing Keith said to him once he entered the kitchen.  
  
"I'm on the phone right now Keith," Shiro said, brushing him off before returning to his call.  
  
Keith grunted out a not-so-nice word before he chucked his backpack on the dinner table where Shiro sat, knocking over his coffee mug in the process. Shiro shot Keith and irritated look, which he returned with a glare as he stormed out of the room.  
  
"Yeah, that's fine Mr. McClain... Yep, tomorrow sounds great, I'll bring him here after work... Thanks, you too, bye."  
  
Shiro pressed the end call button and flipped his phone shut and sighed as Pidge walked in.  
  
"Please tell me you know why he's in a pissy mood," Shiro pleaded.  
  
"Well, I may have let it slip that Keith is gonna be sharing a room with Lance once he gets here. Oops, right?" Pidge walked over to the fridge. "But honestly, I thought you'd told him this morning like you told me."  
  
Shiro shrugged, "This whole Lance news just became official this morning. You think I could just drop that all on him right away?"  
  
"I did. Unintentionally, but I did," Pidge pointed out as she opened the fridge.  
  
"I was planning on telling him over dinner tonight. I was going to take him to Texas Roadhouse, because he loves that place. I thought that it would even out the blow of the news."  
  
Pidge grabbed a Monster Energy drink from the top shelf and laughed. "Oh my god, you were going to bribe him?"  
  
Shiro nodded, a groan pouring from his lips.  
  
Pidge pulled at the ring of the soda can until it cracked open. "The last time you tried that, it didn't work. You took him to that dumb Slice Capades store and to see that god awful horror movie that came out, then you told him that you and Adam were seeing each other. Remember what happened?"  
  
"I'll never forget it," Shiro muttered.  
  
“Keith isn’t someone who can be bought, Shiro.” And as Pidge walked out of the room, she said, "Also, I got a detention so I'll need a ride to school on Saturday."  
  
Shiro groaned and put his head in his hands, muttering something about raising two very difficult children.  
  
.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-.  
  
"So basically you're dad's sending you away because he's tired of dealing with you?" Hunk held back a laugh. He was trying to be supportive, but he was too entertained by this news.  
  
Lance let out a depressed moan, rubbing his eyes with his palms. "My dad and I have been fighting like cats and dogs lately. Finally he's decided to send me off like some delinquent off to a boarding school. I'm not a flipping delinquent though!" Lance hid his face in his hands after letting out a frustrated sigh. "What am I supposed to do?"  
  
Hunk definitely stopped snickering when he heard Lance's voice crack in that last sentence. "Oh... Wow, you're actually upset about this."  
  
"Of course I am! My dad hates me."  
  
Hunk put a hand on his back. Lance was crying now. He felt guilty for teasing him a second ago. He had no idea that this was actually tearing Lance up. Hunk apologized, and Lance just shrugged.  
  
"Anyway, your dad doesn't hate you. I'm sure he'd be heartbroken to know that you even think that," Hunk said with a soft tone.  
  
Lance shrugged again. "Whatever. I remember that I used to be the spoiled kid in the family, and now I'm the troubled teen. And this is all because I had 'bad' friends who dad blamed for every single bad decision I made. After James, everything just became worse." Lance leaned on Hunk and closed his eyes, tears slipping down his cheeks. "James. He was the worst decision I ever made. I hate him. I hate him so much."  
  
Hunk wrapped an arm around his friend and rubbed circles on his shoulder with his thumb. It was a comforting gesture that made Lance feel safe and relaxed. Even still, he kept crying. All of his pent up stress was just killing him, and this release was almost pleasing. He had to thank Hunk for putting up with his tears and drama later. He couldn't have asked for a better friend.  
  
Lance explained how he felt so emotionally lost when is came to everything. His family, his love life, most of his friends, just everything. He talked about how he slept around to numb this pain, but it only caused more. Lance ended up slurring his thoughts together and sobbed about everything wrong in his life, and how he was the problem. Hunk just listened and understood, taking it all in.  
  
Lance's heart was just full of pure agony. Hunk didn't know what to say, or how to help. He desperately wished that he did. Seeing Lance hurt this badly was awful.  
  
The two of them sat in Hunk's car like that for about twenty minutes before Lance slowly pulled himself from Hunk's grasp. "I think I'm good now. Thanks. Dad wants me to get home and pack tonight. I'm moving outta there tomorrow."  
  
Hunk smiled at him sadly. "Yeah, okay."  
  
.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-.  
  
The next day at school was absolutely soul-crushing. Keith was indignant about the whole situation, and Lance was just got anxious every time he thought about living with his boss. He had no idea what to expect, where he was gonna sleep, what the house was going to look like, or where it was even at. Lance hoped that it was somewhat close to school, because he usually rode his bike.  
  
Lance liked to say that it was because he liked the exercise rather than he just didn't have a car.  
  
Anyways, he was a nervous wreck. And he had no idea that he would also be living with three other people besides Shiro.  
  
And boy would his head practically explode when he realized who one of them was.  
  
Seconds turned into minutes, minutes turned into hours, and then the god awful school day was over. Lance got a ride from Hunk to the Black Lion Auto Shop, his bike in the trunk. His dad had said he'd dropped off all of Lance's packed things a few hours ago, so he didn't have to worry about that. He still found it kind of hard to believe that his dad kicked him out. It all seemed so surreal.  
  
When Lance hopped out of Hunk's car, Hunk popped the trunk and let Lance get his bike. After that, he closed it and said his goodbyes, and watched as his friend drove off with a wave.  
  
Lance turned once Hunk was out of sight and sighed, trudged to the store, walking his bike beside to him.  
  
"Shiro? I'm here," he called, the bell ringing after he pushed open the glass door.  
  
Lance heard an echoey, muffled reply. "In the garage."  
  
Lance walked through the small entrance room, which consisted of a wooden front desk, plush chairs for waiting customers, a black tiled floor, and smooth grey walls. And there were two doors. One on each side of the room. The left one led to the car wash and the right led to the garage. There were also a cork boards on the wall behind the desk filled with pictures of the employees from previous years and checklists and papers filled with reminders for each current employee.  
  
Lance thought the room was kind of charming. It even had tall elegant lamps in the corners of the room that lit the place up. But his favorite part was the framed picture that sat on the desk. It was of him, Shiro, and their other co-workers. There was an older looking man in it. He was their boss before he passed not that long ago. His name was Ulaz, and Shiro absolutely respected the heck out of him.  
  
Lance knew that the history between Shiro and Ulaz was long. They had a super close relationship, but Lance never really asked about it. It was probably too personal to ask about now, since Ulaz was dead.  
  
Car accident too. The irony.  
  
Lance tried to shake the thoughts aside as he pushed the door on the side of the room open to the garage, finding Shiro farther off, working on what looked like a vintage Chevy. Lance was immediately jealous of the owner. His chest was bubbling with excitement as he got a closer look.  
  
"Is that what I think it is?" Lance nearly squealed, parking his bike and tossing his backpack aside. He ran over to Shiro, who was under the car.  
  
Even though he couldn't see Shiro's face, he knew he was smiling. He loved it when Lance dorked out over cars. It was actually how Shiro and Lance became as close at they were. "If you think it's a 1957 Chevy Coupe, then yes, it is. Pretty thing, isn't she?"  
  
"Totally," Lance agreed, delicately running his fingers across the teal paint. "I would kill for a car as stunning as this. No offense to my bike or anything, but I could use a transportation upgrade."  
  
Lance examined the slick paint job, the clean windows, and shiny metal that practically sparkled like diamonds. The wheels looked pretty new, which added to the chic, vintage look. If Lance had a million bucks, he'd use every penny just to buy this car from the person who had the pleasure of owning it. He had to hold back a ton of fangirl-ish shrieks and questions about the Chevy. He knew how overwhelmed Shiro could get when Lance was hyped.  
  
Lance suddenly remembered how he was going through his "YOLO" phase a long time ago and drove a customer's car through the car wash without the hood on. The Auto Shop nearly got sued. Ulaz apologized on Lance's behalf, and Shiro smacked him upside the head. After that, Lance would always say, "In my defense, I was like, fourteen. Plus, it was totally worth it. I was able to cross 'bathing in the car wash' off my bucket list."  
  
Back then, Lance was just a goofy kid who hung around because he liked cars. All of the employees had a soft spot for him, so he never got into too much trouble. That hardly changed once he became an employee himself.  
  
Shiro chuckled, sliding out from under the car, his face and arms sporting a few oil smears. "Yeah, me too. If it were up to be, people would start making cars like this again."  
  
Lance winked at him. "A man after my own heart."  
  
"Ha-ha," Shiro said sarcastically after standing up. "Anyway, a man brought it in because the water pump was pretty worn out, so I was getting ready to replace it. But I might need to order the part. This is a super old model."  
  
"We should take it for a spin once you fix her up!" Lance suggested.  
  
Shiro pulled a rag out of his pocket to wipe the grease from his wrench. "Absolutely not. Do you have any idea how much trouble you got us into three years ago?"  
  
Lance could tell by the look in his eyes that he'd love to joyride with that baby, but he didn't want to get fired. Not to mention he didn't want to relive the whole "car wash incident".  
  
Lance hiked his shoulders up and down. "Yolo was a popular thing three years ago."  
  
"Yolo was popular in 2011, Lance. That was more than five years ago!"  
  
Shiro walked over to the shelves over on the wall to look for a water pump in hopes of not having to order a new part. "Also, I just thought I'd remind you," he said, rubbing the scar that ran over the bridge of his nose. "Your father dropped your things off earlier. It doesn't look like you packed much."  
  
Lance threw his head back and huffed. "Yeah. I, uh, only had like one night to get what I wanted packed up."  
  
Shiro suddenly felt a pang of guilt in his chest, straining him a little. Maybe he shouldn't have offered to take Lance in so soon. Maybe he should've just told him a week before the move in. But then again, staying with his father probably wouldn't have been the best thing, considering how strained their relationship currently was. He reminded himself that he was doing a good thing, and then dismissed it.  
  
Still, he said, "Yeah, I'm sorry about that."  
  
Lance beamed at him. "Nah it's totally cool. I'm pretty excited to be living with you."  
  
Then, Shiro was reminded of something. "Right! But I forgot to tell you some... important stuff. About living with me, I mean."  
  
Lance leaned on the car and smiled. “Sure, shoot.”  
  
Shiro had to take a moment to muster up the courage to spill it. “You know how I’m living with Pidge and her brother, but there’s someone else too. You’re actually gonna be sharing a room with him too.”  
  
“Ah. That’s cool. Who?”  
  
“Well…” Shiro trailed. “Okay, no, I just have to rib the band-aid off. It’s Keith. I’m sorry for not immediately telling you. But after seeing Keith completely fly the handel and get mad at me, I was afraid of telling you.”  
  
Lance's expression went from listening, to processing, to devastated, real quick.  
  
"Lance? Come on, it's not that bad... Lance?"  
  
Lance looked like he'd seen a ghost and gotten punched in the gut by it. The perfect combination of pain and fear. "Oh man, this so much more traumatizing than the time Vine died because of Twitter."  
  
.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-.  
  
Lance and Shiro carried the five boxes Lance packed and put them in the back of Shiro's truck. Lance decided against taking his bike along, feeling somewhat embarrassed by it. They drove home, and neither of them spoke for most of the ride. The radio was the only sound that filled their silence.  
  
“Please don’t think that this is going to be a bad thing,” Shiro tried. “I promise that living with us won’t be so awful.”  
  
Lance attempted to smile at him as a form of reassurance, but Shiro could instantly see through it.  
  
They finally made it to Shiro's house after a fifteen minute drive, so Lance assumed that he was too far from school to ride his bike, which sort of bummed him out.  
  
Shiro parked the car in the driveway, asking Lance if it was okay if they unpacked his things tomorrow since it was pretty late, and Lance just nodded, slowly stepping out of the car. He looked up and noticed how strange the house looked. The house was painted in a few different colors, making it look like someone just tossed red, black, and green buckets at the house and called it a day. The windows and front door all had yellow frames, and the balcony at the top of the house was blue, and the front porch was a mix of all five colors.  
  
It was basically the color scheme of that old TV show called Voltron. Lance watched the heck out of that show when he was a kid. He'd always been a bit of a nerd. A closeted nerd, but a nerd all the same.  
  
The first thing that popped up in Lance's head was just “wow”. He loved it. It's just too bad he'd be sharing a room with Keith. The whole situation was bittersweet, to say the least.  
  
Shiro must've seen Lance grinning ear to ear, because he said, "Yeah, it's pretty cool, right?"  
  
Lance just nodded, completely in a trance by this house's unique appeal.  
  
"By the way, that balcony up there is outside of your room, so feel free to relax up there if you so wish." Shiro just saw Lance standing there like a zombie, not really sure of what to say or do, so he said, "Let's get you inside. Matt's going to order Little Caesars, so after meeting him, tell him what kind of pizza you want."  
  
"Cool," Lance said dumbly, remembering Shiro mention the name 'Matt' before. He guessed that was Pidge’s older brother.  
  
Lance trailed behind Shiro as he walked up to the porch. Shiro opened the door and called out to anyone, saying that he was home.  
  
"Shiro! Matt totally crashed on the couch, so I kinda need you to take him to bed. Keith said he didn't want to because he 'didn't feel like it'," a younger voice called from the kitchen.  
  
Lance faked a polite smile. "Pidge? Wassup?”  
  
"Oh! Is that Lance?" Pidge asked, exiting the kitchen with a strawberry Pocky stick placed between her teeth. When she saw him, she waved.  
  
Shiro put a hand on his shoulder to secure him. "Pidge, did Matt order the pizza before we got here?"  
  
"Nah, I was just about to text you asking what Lance wanted," she said before yawning. The Pocky stick fell out of her mouth, breaking in two once it hit the floor. "Shoot..."  
  
Pidge picked them up as Shiro guided Lance into the kitchen, trying to get him adjusted into his new home. Lance looked around, and was immediately charmed by how cute the room looked. The counters were a white marble, the floor consisted of black and white tiles, and the cabinets were all white, with rainbow speckles dotted all over them. It was pretty cool.  
  
Shiro told Lance where to find the cups, plates, silverware, and the food. Then he told him to make himself at home and have whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Then he showed him the living room, and Lance looked around.  
  
This room was actually... normal. Lance was a little relieved to see that. The walls were a dark green, a fancy fan hung from the middle of the ceiling, a black couch rested in front of a huge flat screen TV that was mounted on the wall in front of it, along with a couple armchairs. On the couch, Matt was slumped over, presumably passed out as Pidge had stated earlier. On one of the couches, a dog was sleeping, curled up with a blanket laid on its back.  
  
"The guy on the couch is Matt," Shiro said with a tired expression on his face. He walked over to Matt and carefully picked him up, saying, "The dog is Rover. We have five cats too, but they pretty much just disappear now and then and do their own thing."  
  
"Jeez..." Lance was once again overwhelmed. He looked at the TV and The Walking Dead on the screen.  
  
Shiro noticed Lance's eyebrows raise with interest. "We all watch that show all the time. We may watch the same episodes over and over again, but we never get tired of it." Shiro was holding Matt in his arms now. "I'm gonna take him to his room. By the way, my bedroom is down here down the hall, Pidge and Matt share a room upstairs, and you and Keith share a room in the attic. You go upstairs and find more stairs at the end of the hall, they lead to the trap door which opens up to your room."  
  
"Cool," Lance said as Shiro made his way upstairs.  
  
Lance heard Matt grumbling in Shiro’s arms for a split second. He noticed that he had wrapped his arms around Shiro’s neck just before they disappeared upstairs out of view.  
  
Lance just kind of shifted around, glancing at the TV every so often. He felt so out of place here, and he didn't want to go upstairs to "his room". Just then, Pidge came into the room and asked him what kind of pizza he wanted. Lance quickly responded, saying that he down for any topping.  
  
"By the way..." Lance trailed. "I love your shirt."  
  
Pidge took a Pocky stick out of her mouth and smiled, looking down at her shirt that said, "If only closed minds came with closed mouths" in bold black print, and little alien heads were scattered around the words.  
  
She laughed. "Thanks. Keith got it for me a couple months back. A very late birthday present."  
  
Lance's mouth went dry at the mention of him. And Pidge must've noticed his unease because she said, “Look, I get it. This is super weird and uncomfortable for you. But you gotta suck it up. You and Keith both need to just accept the fact that you’re gonna be roommates. It is not the end of the world.” She was pretty direct and honest, and Lance kind of appreciated that.  
  
Pidge gave him a pretty hard pat on the back and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, pulling up the pizza place's phone number as she trotted on upstairs. Lance just followed her.  
  
Like Shiro had said, there was a smaller flight of stairs down the hall. Lance was getting chills. He'd rather take an algebra test while wearing socks and sandals with fire ants crawling in his eyeballs. Lance then cringed at the thought. Lance took a deep breath in, then out.  
  
"Okay Lance... Be classy."  
  
.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-.  
  
Keith had just finished setting up half of the room for Lance like Shiro had forced him to do when there was a knock on the trapdoor. He turned and saw it slowly open, Lance's super uneasy expression visible. He looked absolutely uncomfortable, and Keith completely understood why. He felt a little weirded out himself, especially since they beat the living crap out of each other pretty recently. Oh, and, not to mention that they absolutely hate each other.  
  
Now they have to share a room like they're totally cool with each other and everything is all sunshine and freaking rainbows.  
  
"Uh... Hey."  
  
"Yeah, hey..."  
  
They were both thinking the same thing...  
  
'I hate my life.'

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Chapter two is going to be about Pidge and Romelle.  
> Stay tuned!


End file.
